5 Sep 14 -- Cafe-hopping : Ice Edge Cafe and Lola's Cafe

Friends may know from my Facebook account that I have been cafe-hopping , mostly with bf.  A friend of mine "jio-ed" me to cafe-hop and we decided to cover the Kovan area today.

Cafe-hopping took on a new level today as my friend and I really hop from one cafe to another. Well, we did not really planned for it, but half expect this to happen.

Initially, we decided to try out Lola's Cafe in Kovan, as  there were many good reviews about this quaint little cafe. However, we also have friends who told us how difficult it is to visit the cafe after work, for the queue can be as long as 1 hr,   A friend told me she always ended up at the nearby cafe , Ice Edge cafe, as they cannot put up with the long queues.

I reached Lola's before 7pm and thought I should be able to get a seat for two and I don't see a queue forming.  Yet I was wrong, For the staff took out an iPad with a booking system and told me that there were lots of requests for a table of two and the expected waiting time was 1.5 hrs.   Since my friend was still on the way, I just gave my number to be put on the waiting list .

Then, we decided that since we seldom come to Kovan, we might as well tried out both cafes in one evening! Had dinner at the nearby Ice Edge Cafe and then hopped back to Lola/s for drinks & desserts,

Well, I guess many of the patrons in Ice Edge Cafe were directed from Lola's (we saw many people coming from that direction). It's still good to have a cafe located near another. LOL.

Was so busy thinking about dinner and hopping to Lola's that I have forgotten to take a pic of Ice Edge Cafe, So here is a pic which I found from Google

(Photo credit:http://www.donnlicious.com/2014/04/ice-edge-cafe.html)


Ice Edge Cafe is more known for its waffles & gelato.  Well, I have to resist the temptation and just order a main course for my dinner.  We both ordered a fish & chips each and my friend had an additional glass of root beer float.


So here's a pic of my dinner. For the price of $14++, I just find it average. The fish is rather fresh but the batter is a bit dry.

Time passed rather quickly and just as we have completed our meals, I received a call from Lola's automated booking system that the table was ready .  We made our way there and were directed to two seats indoors (phew).


The cafe.


The Interiors. Industrial and simple look.


Tempting Desserts

I was 3/4 full by then . As the saying goes -- There 's always room for desserts, I not only had a cup of latte (as usual) and shared 3 desserts with my friend.  We just simply picked the items that look interesting on the menu.


1st dessert- Banana Earl Grey Tart. $5,

My friend chose this as it seems unique. The Earl Grey flavor was not as strong as we expect it to be, perhaps the caramelized banana slices overwhelm it. It's still worth trying.


2nd dessert - French Vanilla Creme Brulee ($6)

We ordered this as my friend mentioned she like Creme Brulee.  I like the crispy caramel top. Only have two spoonfuls of it as I am trying to cut down on sugar. LOL


 3rd dessert -- Humming Bird Cake.

We ordered this as we were intrigued by the name. Heard of Hummingbird but what's a Humming Bird cake?  Quoted from Wikipedia:
"Hummingbird cake is a banana pineapple spice cake common in the Southern United States. Ingredients include flour, sugar, salt, ripe banana, pineapple, cinnamon, pecans, vanilla extract, eggs, and leavening agent."

Lola's version consists of  cream cheese frosting, chunks of pine apples, banana and a dash of cinnamon. This is my favorite order.



I usually have a latte at cafes. Here's my cup of latte ($5) that comes with coffee art, The coffee is not too strong. I have no qualms drinking coffee late at night as I will still fall asleep easily. True enough, I concussed soon after I hit the bed that night.

So that's all for my blog post after a long hiatus. For more information on the cafes , please refer to the links below:


Ice Edge Cafe
Operating Hours: Monday - Sunday: 12pm - 12am
Address: 2 Kovan Road, Simon Plaza, #01-10, S(548008)
Phone: 6858 5729
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/iceedgecafe/info
Website: http://www.iceedgecafe.com.sg/


Lola's Cafe
Operating Hours: Tue - Thu: 10:00 - 23:30

                                Fri - Sat: 10:00 - 00:00

                                Sun: 10:00 - 23:30

Address: 5 Simon Rd, S545893
Phone: 6284 0349
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lolascafesg
Website: http://lolascafe.com.sg/

Cafe Fest Singapore 2014 -- where Great Stories are Told ...

When I chanced upon an ad on Facebook on this inaugural Cafe Festival in Singapore many weeks ago, I was really excited.  The concept of  visiting a cafe hopping street  sounds so interesting.  I remembered showing the BF the link and  after reading the FAQ, I did notice that the organizers  mentioned on the site that the  event is open to all but only the  festival pass holders can purchase F&B from the participant cafes.  Being a coffee lover, I would definitely need to make  F&B purchases if I am going to attend.  At that point of time, it already occurred to me that  there seems to be a loophole that  by opening the event to all, the system can be exploited  by having one person paying for a pass to get the F&B at festive rates. 
You must be wondering , why bother to but passed when the even is open to public?  
This is because on the website , the organiser, TELL GREAT LITTLE STORIES (TGLS) indicated that all cafes will conduct checks to ensure all are passholders and they will also conduct their own checks to ensure that those in the main seating areas are passholders only.  With  also the promises of a free $20 Uber credits for free rides on festive days and goodie bags valued at $60 -$100 each, we thought it would be worth attending the exclusive event ,

 Screenshots from the website




Due to our hectic schedule, we forgot to buy the passes during the early bird promotion and the VIP  passes were also sold out. We, or rather the BF has paid $50 to get the 2 regular passes.  

The event took place on 6 Sep and ended on 7 Sep.  We only attended the first day and felt that it is rather poorly planned.  Over hyped , I would day.   So much efforts was sent on marketing the  event  yet  it was poorly  planned .   I am sure by now most would have read from the news and social  media about the backlash the organisers received  on the first day of the event.  I have organised events  (though not on this scale)  and know how difficult it is running one, but i have to say this is rather a disaster and  really felt that the organizers have not been  truthful to the public.  No wonder someone said they really live up  to their name of telling  great stories.

Why I consider the event is a disaster:

1. Uber Credits
 Till today, the BF did not receive any email on the Uber credits, It did not matters to us then as he will be driving that day.  Saw from the comments that many of the passholders cant even get a ride using the Uber credits.

2 Lack of Signage/instructions
It was only indicated that the venue is at Waterfront Promenade.  No map shown. I actually used Google map to  check out the place and it cannot be found in Singapore. If not for the Garfield Run, I would not have guessed where exactly the  festival was held from the pic shown their Facebook page.  Pity those who spend hours trying to find the venue.

3 The  event ended up not exclusive to pass-holders 
 The passholders only found out that the event is open to all and the cafes allows the public to purchases the F&B items only at the event. The organizers only commented through the  Facebook  at the end of the day that " it is our mistake for not communicating to the consumers clearly that the event was made open to the public” ­– a decision made “halfway” through the preparation of the event".    Oh, why did they not indicate the change in the policy on  their website and yet they were still selling last minute Festive Passes  two days before the event when they know it will be open to the public.  Why did they not get the helpers to inform us about this arrangement at the point of registration? We have to find out the truth ourselves when we saw the public queuing for food and drinks.

4 Useless goodie bags not worth as much as they have claimed

Picture shown here show the contents of the goodie bag. Basically just pamphlets , a map of the Cafe Fest and a small notebook. Can you justify why it is value at $60?!!!

5. Limited selection of food,
The event is supposed to last till 7pm. At 2pm, we saw most of the food items sold out and by 5pm, more than 5 participating cafes has packed up for the day.

6. Little Discount for pass-holders
The discount for the pass-holders is only $1,  By opening the event to the public, that means a pass-holder need to buy  at least 25 items  to get back his/her  money worth, compare to those who did not event spent a single cent to get the passes.   Really don't see the value in doing that too.

7. Lack of seats and small tentage.
Lookng at the tent age, I really feel sorry for those who forked out more $ to get the VIP passes.  It was so small that it could barely fill 50 people.  No checks done by the organizers to ensure that those people seated there are all pass-holders.

8. Lack of sincerity

Though the organizers admit at the end of their first day that it was their oversight and they are working on some sort of compensation. as they put it , "for those who might not come for the 2nd day of the event, they have to write in to them.   This only appeared as a  comment on their facebook page. There isn't any post on their Facebook page or on their website  on this matter.


Ok enough said about them. Here's some pics of the event,


Some of the participating cafes.

Tt's a  super sunny day.Long queues at each stalls and not crowd control.  There/s no priority queues for the VIP holders as promised.




(to be continued)

Card-marking Achievement in 2014

Have not been posting much on this blog. That doesn't mean I did not make any cards or crafts for the year. Have created a few baby albums for friends, different type of crafts. Am finding it difficult to post on blogspot as I find it a hassle to forward the pictures from the phone and download it from laptop to post on blogspot. Am contemplating to use Dayre but seems like non of my friends have been using it.


Anyway, just want to share this on blogspot. Honestly, I don't feel good about winning as I am the only participant of the challenge. For some weird really, no one else took up the challenge for the week! There have been many participants for the other weekly challenge.  To me it's a little achievement as I had tried something which I have never tried before --- painting on cards, using dimensional paint.

1) I used my new Sizzix honeycomb die for the first time.

2) Somehow I wanted a very dark theme card, with a hint of purple. So I chose a black Prima Optimist paper over a  purple cardstock. Used Art Anthology dimensional paint in Trolley Grey and paint over Tim Holtz stencil (latticework).
Paste the Honeycomb die on the side and a Prima resin frame on the other side.
Wanted to add a flower accent , but felt my flower is too "cheery". So I pasted a black leaf first.

 3) As for the flower, I managed to find a black lace from my stash and attempted to make a black lace rosette. Think it looked ok and then sew the flower to it. In order to make it look "grungy", i painted some dimensional paint over it.

4) So here's the finished product.

Valentine's Day Cards

For the first time this year, I put up a mini sale of my handmade Valentine's Day cards on Facebook and had sold 3 of them. Had made 10 cards initially and did another one at a request of a friend's friend.    The printed papers were mostly redeemed using my membership points and I din make a lost out of them, as I had originally wanted to get the printed papers to make a V-day album for my bf.

I simply love Bo Bunny's Love Letter  papers. Hence you can most of my cards are creating using papers from that line.

Here are the cards that were sold.

1)  Feb 14 Heart

This is my favourite and seems like it is the most popular design. For this is the first card that was sold. I also had someone message me privately that he keow this card was sold but he offered to pay a higher price for this,  Cos he knew his gf will sure love this card. Its is not that ethical, I have to say, but you can't blame a guy for fighting to get what he think his gf would like to have. Well , my response to him was that I am sorry that the card was sold and I offered to do up another similar design for him which is shown below. 

On a site note; I couldn't help wondering if my bf will do the same thing is he know what I wanted was unavailable. 

2) The "sister" card

Well,not 100% similar but basically, I have include "14",  "February", crystals, and a heart shaped embellishment.  The buyer was  nice to drop me a message after V-day, thanking me and  saying that his gf love the card. I am glad she did and glad to have helped too.

3) "Oh How I love you!" card

I actually bought the stickers some years back.  Never had a chance to use it until now. Somehow I have a feeling that the person who buys it must have been cycling with his/her partner and true enough!. 

4) You are my Favorite card

Well, this was not really sold but considered it as "give away". My sister has been sponsoring me a few clothings from her blogshop (www.sashpetals.com) so that I can help promoting the clothes in person.Hence, I asked her to pick one  for her to give to her husband (my bro-in-law). Hmm wonder why she pick this though.

As for the cards that are not sold. I can still keep them as the materials are acid free. I had joked to bf that I can give him one card  every year for the next coming V-days.

Feel free to drop me a note if anyone of you is interested to get  a V-Day card or handmade card. :)

My 2012

I seldom get too personal when it come to blogging now  (well , on this blog I mean, not the one I have abandoned years ago). However after seeing  Cruz Teng’s  blog post, I am inspired to do one too, so that years later, when I revisited this post, at least I will have some recollections on what happened in 2012, be it in term of current affairs and personal affairs. Haha.

Warning:  This post is gonna be lengthy and full of grammatical errors, and is written in a mixture of English and Chinese.

What I remembered for 2012:

·         The duke and duchess of Cambridge came to Singapore. Think Queenstown, Gardens by the Bay, Raoul dress and speculated baby bump.

·         Obama‘s tweet  “ Four more years” was quoted by many.

·         In Aug, there was the biggest rumour in Singapore. I had friends, family who told me and the speculations that “ 老李” had passed away and the whole government is keeping this a secret as National Day was approached. Despite showing my parents about another pic which was sent through Whatsapp on a healthy looking  ex-Ministor Mentor  walking unaided out of SGH, they rather believe the rumours that was going around in coffee shops  (all over Singapore I presume). 

·         More people are interested to watch the NDP this year, specially the “segment” where all the members of parliament were invited to their seats.  From the cheers that were heard, and the sentiments echoed in social media platform , I guessed  he is still loved by many. At Four more years too?

·         It’s been a year of lusting husbands and lasting wives, be in for Singapore or overseas. Singapore, that is considered to be conservative, was rocked by a wave of sex scandals.  Haiz.

·         Diva Whitney Houston, Feng Feifei said goodbye.  I realized that I can actually sing-along more to the songs by Feng Feifei than Whitney Houston. Blame my parents for listening to her songs when I was young. LOL.

·         Superheros ruled the cinema screens – Avengers, Superman, Batman.  I was causing a lot of “distress “to my colleagues and friends around me by asking them a  欠扁问答题  that goes “ Why super heros’ costumes are so tight fitting? “.
Ans  :  因为救人要紧

One said I hit a new low with this cold joke…..  *Crows flying*

·         21 Dec 2012 was deemed to be last day on earth..  Crap…..I know I will be still alive commenting about this.

·         If you think Macarena dance craze last decade was bad,  Psy proved that he can outdo it with his Gangnam Style  house-galloping moves.


2012 to me on a personal level:

• - started off the year at countdown event in Taipei, watching fireworks  firing from Taipei 101
• -started a new blog ( this blog) on 21 Feb , mainly to share more abt my art creations.  Sort of give it up in May as I could not catch up with the number of creations I have came up with.
• - made more than 20  Name signages, created 3 mini albums , 2 frame projects ,1 layout  and more than 100 cards for friends.
• - missed 大师兄 performance but managed to see him in person.Was so touched by his actions when I was in a stoned mode due to lack of sleep.

「步步惊心」里的众爷们， 你喜欢那一位？

• -- I seldom watched drama serials online but after seeing the trailer of 「步步惊心」in Taiwan , I was so hooked on it that I completed watching the whole serial 2 weeks before it end its run in Singapore . For some episodes, I watched twice.
• 很多朋友也迷上「步步惊心」。我常开玩笑，说我的另一伴要像四爷那么man, 那么大方（就像他不计较若曦跟其他哥儿门在一起）。最喜欢四爷会说实话。

• Draw Something became the popular app in the earlier part of 2012, though it's popularity decline soon after it was bought over . 爱搞怪的我，尽量找机会把「步步惊心」的人物画进去。
• - also caught a bit of the drama serial 「犀利人妻」。谢安真的那句＂不要怕！＂留下了深刻的印象。

• -- movies I have watched in 2012 included Men in Black III, The Lucky One , Dark Knight Rises, 犀利人妻 and Les Miserables.
• - checked out new cafes like Full House, Kith cafe, Nana's Green Tea.
• -- held my first ever birthday party in McDonalds. The service there sucks but my friends are so sporty to came in school uniform.  那个月苦练的手语歌，「爱」，如今我都忘记好多手语动作。
• -- sported bangs for a while . The last time I was in bangs was more than 15 years ago?
• -- as what the tarot card reader predicted, I will change job before my birthday . Had never made so many trips to hotels ( for training ) prior to the current job. Had 4 meals at Sheraton,1 at Marriot and one at hotel intercontinental  for the last 3 months in 2012.

D&D --Hawaii Nite

• --  Attended  the new company's D&D,  My attempt to keep a low profile at the company D&D failed . Was practically up on the stage every 30mins. My first experience in giving out prizes at a formal event cos there is only one HR exec . Ha!
• -- organised a team building event  for the company. 
• -- had my first taste of the original Singapore Sling.
• -- caught the Harry Porter exhibition at Art & Science Museum. Disappointing . Heng I dun need to pay a single cent as it was the prev company's family day event.

me trying to take artistic shots at Gardens by the Bay

• visited Gardens by the Bay . Perhaps visiting it on 中秋节makes it more special too.
• tried out ice skating again at the new Jcube mall .
• attended 2 weddings ( gor's and KL's) and a ROM (siping's) in the year of dragon 
•  find it funny that the post on my relationship status has the most "like " , compare to my other personal posts on Facebook . 
•    said goodbye to my PO Box of 11 years.
• songs that I like includes: 会过去的，三寸天堂， 花又开好了， 不具名的悲伤，失恋事小，明明就。

• Received my 20th polar bear plushy--Chalky
• Ended 2012 watching fireworks at Marina Bay.

So that's my 2012, what about yours?

Christmas Cards 2012

Ok, I know I have neglected this blog. Haha couldn't really keep it up at times.

Not that I have been lazy in creating cards and craft work last year.

In fact, I have created more than 10 name signages for ex-colleagues as farewell gifts and more than 100 Christmas cards for sale and give-away. Well, a far cry from the 300+ Christmas cards I did in 2011 but I guess in terms of techniques, I did my best to try out doing new cards using new techniques.

Here are some of the few Christmas cards that I have done which I like.





I like the glossy reindeer die-cut. Peek-a- boo effect was decided when I layout the papers.

This pastel scheme card is one where a lot of friends wanted. Ironically, I did it when I was in a bad mood --feeling blue.



I reminded myself that I need to make use of my Sizzix die-cut machine.  Hence took the risk to cout out a scallop shaped from the front of the card.



Haha this card has special meaning to me. It is specially customised for M4 who like blue.

One of the new techniques I applied-- did a few "step-up" cards such as this.

Love this as you hardly see a purple themed Christmas cards. Coincidentally, the Christmas light-ups at Orchard Road also had a Nutcracker theme.

This is simplier than i thought-- rocking cards. It really rocks -- like a rocking chair.

Ok, thats all for the day.

Mini Accordion Album for Liying

Another  "ortang" post..

Create a  mini accordion album for Liying as her birthday giving, using a similar template that I learnt from  Papermarket for YSL's birthday gift.
Of cos, as this album is for Liying, I can use lots of floral and girly embellishments for her album.
Keep it rather simple and stick too natural colours and it will be more suitable for Liying, who in my eye , is not a very fussy and down to earth person.
 So here are the pictures of my final creation.

I wish  I could find more pictures of us taken in the past as our group knew each other for more than 13 years.  It was only as I went to dig out the soft copies of the pics that I realized that the pics I used to upload in "Friendster"(well...nobody use them for the past few years) are all gone as I did not pay attention to the email sent by them, informing that the pics upload will be removed if I don't take any action. Recalled that we did take some pics during our Poly years, but they were taken using the old camera. Can't remember where I put the films... *sheepish*

I had use lots of butterflies for her album, plus pics of other nature themes such as roosters, bird nests and flowers.

Here are the supplies used:

• Book Cover --  7Gypsies
• Base paper (2pcs)  -- DCWV Collage Musings Stack
• Cuts outs from  -- Prima Marketing Songbird Collection "title-it",   Prima Marketing Almanac Collection "Edison",  DCWV Collage Musings Stack,  DCWV Tres Chic Stack
• Vellum : Dear Lizzy Neapolitan "Lovely Afternoon"
• Prima flowers
• Doily
• Prima's "Say it with Crystals"
• Mini tag
• Washi tape from Tim Holtz collection
• Embellished butter from Jenni Bowlin Studio
• Lace
• pearls

There are quite a few more cuts out which I did not manage to trace them. Most of them are from my stash, so  I don't think they are available in the craft stalls now.

2 more mini accordion books to make. Can't wait to see the results!